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Photo TR: California's Great America 8-11-13


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I recently visited California's Great America on August 11th taking advantage of CGA's back to school sale. Here are some thoughts.

Gold Striker: Gold Striker is a phenomenal coaster. Ejector air, hairpin turns, this ride has it all. The intensity is rare for a wooden coaster. GCI really did a good job on this coaster. I played the wheel of fortune for 5 times. I got 4 front of the line passes meaning 8 rides and 1 for buy one get one free on Extreme skyflyer. Gold Striker really is a great coaster. The airtime is insane on this ride in the last row. The ride ops were extremely enthusiastic on this ride. They got a dispatch like every 45 seconds. Wait time was around 30-50 minutes the whole day Sometimes, the train was out of the station before the other train even entered the break run. The ride ops were the most efficient in the whole park. Also, Gold Striker has now claimed number one on my top 3 woodie list.

 

Vortex: Same old Vortex. Still painful, still extremely bumpy. Almost no lines at all for this one. However if you ride it the way AngryGumball does, it doesn't hurt. Only about a five minute wait the whole day.

 

Demon: Demon is still the same old. It's running pretty badly this season. It's shaking and rattling all the time. The recorded message is broken again. It feels like it keeps getting worse year after year. I can't believe the lines for this. Lines were at an outrageous 50 minutes. WHY??? Demon usually has a shorter wait time

 

Flight Deck: Still a great ride, nice, smooth and intense. For some reason, I found the eagle train to be smoother than the shark train. Wait times were around 10 minutes throughout the day.

C

The flats were all up and running. Delirium had an extremely short cycle due to long lines. I rode my first skycoaster yesturday. Pretty fun though it feels a bit weird as the rope pulls you back up the tower.

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Welcome to California's Great America! Home of GOLD STRIKER!!!!!!!!!

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Gold Striker's lift hill.

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Gold Striker's banked first drop rocks at the end with this overbank.

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OVERBANK!! Gold Striker has quite a few of these. Also quite a few tight turns.

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One of Goldy's supports.

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Celebration swings. More on Gold Striker later.

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Vortex's overbank with the swings in the foreground.

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Vortex's coaster train wheel

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Flight Deck's Zero G Roll.

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Ooops, forgot a shot! Vortex's station. I'm in the middle next to my dad.

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Firefall. America's first of its type.

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Delirium. I prefer the jumbo gyro swings. Something like Maxair at Cedar Point.

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Tiki Twirl a.k.a. Survivor: The Ride.

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Drop Zone. Sitting next to me is one of my dad's friend's daughter.

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I'm going to finish this TR. Again, sorry for the picture quality because it was taken by an iphone.

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Flying Eagles. These flyers had the longest lines ever. The low capacity combined with bad operations led to an 30 minute wait.

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More Gold Striker shots.

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A sea of new wood.

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Gold Stiker's tunnel from the observation tower.

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Exit the tunnel straight into an overbank.

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One bank. Gold Striker had the most tight twists and turns I ever saw on a coaster.

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More of Gold's twisty awesomeness

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This was my favorite turn. Tight and taken at a fast pace. Gold Striker's trains really do haul ass through the course. It feels much faster than its given speed.

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More Gold Striker.

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This was how crowded Great America was.

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Flight Deck in the distance

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Vortex

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Good Bye Great America! See you next year!

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Oh and one last photo of Flight Deck taken from the parking lot.

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Nice photo trip report. Demon's wait time has been very unstable this season. Some days, it's a walk-on and some days, it's a long wait. It's too bad Demon starting running really bad half-way through the summer as it was running very well earlier in the season.

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